Hidan was surprised.
He truly hadn't expected it!
Not long after joining Akatsuki, he had already gained such a terrifying reputation!
With just a few words, he had scared the dignified Tailless Tailed Beast into kneeling and begging for mercy.
"Looks like I'm still too scary. Maybe I should smile more in the future?"
Thinking this, Hidan lowered the massive scythe in his hand and walked toward Kisame.
"Hm?"
At this moment, Sasori of the Red Sand, who had been watching from the side, widened his mechanical eyes considerably.
Because from his angle, it looked exactly like Kisame was kneeling toward Hidan!
"Strange… Since when did Kisame become this timid?"
"Could it be… Hidan has some kind of evidence on him?"
The more he watched, the more confused he became.
What kind of evidence could make a violent maniac as arrogant and brainless as Kisame kneel before someone else?
Rustle.
Rustle.
Very soon, Hidan arrived in front of Kisame.
He smiled smugly.
"Alright, alright. Hurry up and get up. I'm actually not that angr—wait, what the hell?!"
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt his feet leave the ground again!
His body once again turned into a parabola and was thrown back into the same pile of rubble as before!
"Hm?"
Sasori's eyes instantly widened.
"What is this?"
He could hardly believe his own eyes.
He had been kneeling just now.
How did he attack so suddenly?
Could it be—
All of a sudden, Sasori seemed to realize something.
He slowly shifted his gaze toward the direction Kisame was actually facing!
A terrifying thought burst into his mind.
Could it be—
It wasn't what he thought at all?
The one Kisame was kneeling to was—
The two from Konoha?!
The moment this possibility surfaced, even his puppet let out a faint, ominous creak.
As though confirming his thoughts, after casually throwing the obstructive Hidan away, Kisame hurriedly spoke.
"My lord!"
BOOM!
Those simple two words were like a silence talisman, instantly stopping the breathing of everyone at the center of the battlefield.
Crash!
"Shark Head, you damn—ow, what the hell?"
At the same time, Hidan crawled out of the rubble again.
After hearing those words, even his face turned pale with shock!
Sasori's puppet let out a sharp crack, nearly breaking apart.
"My lord!"
Kisame did not care about anyone else's reaction.
Using his hoarse, trembling, humble voice that sounded like sandpaper scraping together, he pleaded mournfully,
"I'm sorry! We were wrong!"
After speaking, his massive blue head smashed down without hesitation.
Hard.
Brutal.
With all his strength.
His forehead struck the stone tiles in front of him, producing a dull, heavy sound.
Thud—
Crack!
In an instant, blood flowed freely!
With that one kowtow, Kisame had not even activated the most basic defense of his body.
Then his voice rang out once more.
"My lord, we truly didn't know you were here!"
"I know I was wrong!"
"I'll leave right now! Immediately!"
"I absolutely won't dirty your eyes again!"
Every word trembled like chaff in the wind.
Humble to the point of sinking into the dust.
Whoosh—
The wind blew past, bringing a faint chill and sweeping away the aftermath of battle.
The entire center of the battlefield fell silent.
Silent.
Deathly silent.
Drip.
Drip.
Only the sound of liquid dripping from the cracks in the ruins remained.
No one could tell whether it was water or blood.
After Kisame's final sentence spread out, Hidan, who was holding his giant scythe, had his smile freeze completely.
Then his expression twisted into a complex, bizarre look that was equal parts funny, horrifying, and disbelief.
His eyes bulged so hard they nearly popped out.
His mouth opened wide enough to fit an egg.
His attention shifted toward the two people opposite him.
Then back to Kisame kneeling on the ground.
His brain turned into mush.
What the hell was going on?
Were his eyes broken?
But he wasn't Uchiha Itachi.
How could his eyes be broken?
On the other side—
The scorpion tail of Hiruko, Sasori's puppet, which had originally stood upright, produced another crisp crack.
Then it broke off and fell to the ground.
Sasori was so shocked that his head almost broke through Hiruko's shell.
Only Uchiha Itachi showed no surprise.
He had personally witnessed how miserably Kisame had been tormented.
Of course, his gaze was not mainly on Kai.
Instead…
It remained on the young man beside Kai.
That familiar-looking, one-armed youth…
For some reason, looking at him made Itachi's heart ache.
As though he wanted to go over and hold him.
…
"Hiss!"
Across from them, Mei Terumi sharply inhaled.
Her full chest rose and fell violently.
Her sexy red lips parted slightly as though she wanted to say something, yet only the sound of cold breath came out.
She had completely lost her voice.
Her hands still maintained a half-formed Lava Release seal.
But because she was too shocked, she had frozen in place.
Sizzle—
The scorching chakra between her fingers nearly spiraled out of control!
But!
Without thinking, she immediately shook her hand and threw away the half-formed seal.
In those charming, mature, and alluring eyes, aside from shock, there was now also a trace of—
Joy.
The joy of surviving a desperate situation!
These two Konoha people!
They actually—
Actually made an Akatsuki monster, the Tailless Tailed Beast of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Kisame Hoshigaki!
So terrified that he knelt on the spot and kowtowed for mercy!
This was simply divine intervention!
No one understood better than Mei Terumi just how strong Kisame was.
He was—
A towering mountain that was difficult to defeat even on home ground!
A powerful shinobi capable of changing the environment across dozens of kilometers by himself!
Yet now, such a powerful shinobi had knelt down so naturally, without the slightest hesitation?
And he was even begging for mercy?
So how strong were these two from Konoha?
She, Ao, and Yagura, with the Three-Tails as the core, finally had hope!
That was right.
The reason she had stepped in to help was because she had seen these people attempting to seize the Three-Tails.
As a member of Kirigakure, and the person currently with the highest support to become Mizukage, Mei Terumi naturally chose to help.
She simply hadn't expected that once she acted, not only would she fail to rescue the target—
She would trap herself here as well…
Beside her—
Ao covered his bleeding Byakugan, almost forgetting how to breathe.
He could not believe his own eyes.
He could only force his near-limit Byakugan to look again.
But that single look nearly made him bleed out.
Blood tears streamed from the corner of his eye!
A dignified S-rank rogue ninja of Kirigakure.
An absolute fiend.
Was now kneeling and kowtowing to a Konoha brat?
When had this world gone so insane?
Compared to the two of them, Yagura was far more direct.
He suddenly rushed forward.
Walking quickly to the front of the group, he shouted loudly in Uchiha Kai's direction,
"Konoha ninja!"
"As the Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure, I demand that you help me take down these bastards!"
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